The Schools of Witchcraft
The Schools of Witchcraft hold a strange place within the Arcane world. They were founded on the idea of power gained through both study and bargaining with powerful entities can be greater than either individually, and while this is all well and good, it is the nature of that bargain which puts Witches at the periphery of Arcane power. Most Wizards are not used to making such pacts, and in fact bargains like those the Witches undertake bring powers that ring far too much of the Divine for their liking. Thus Witchcraft is distrusted by the Arcane community at large. On the Religious side, they are subject to scrutiny for those pacts because they might be with entities holding malign intentions for the world. The powers of Witchcraft are Arcane, certainly, their power drawn directly from the Arcanum, their spells memorized in the same way all Wizards do. Yet those spells are kept not in a scribed spellbook, but in the mind and soul of a bonded companion. The ‘Hexes’ that Witches can call forth muddy the waters even further. They utilize Arcane energies, but they act in the world like a Divine spell would. So the Schools of Witchcraft hang in suspension between the two circles of power, not quite wholly of one or the other. The first School of Witchcraft was founded with the intention of blending the granted powers of Warlocks with the studied spells of a Wizard. The school met with immediate success as patrons were found to make pacts with and new, different horizons of magic were opened to investigation. It is something of a shame that these first generations Witches were not terribly picky about whom they chose as a patron, because when the Inquisition raided the Schools they found a dangerously large portion of them had made alliance with the Infernal powers in their Pacts. What followed was one of the greatest boons to the nascent school, as the Inquisition declared Witchcraft to be a Divine matter, and thus under their jurisdiction, and the rest of the Arcane world drew a line in the sand and said ‘no, they aren’t’. Thus, despite the odd place Witchcraft holds on the edge of Divine and Arcane, they are considered completely within the Arcane sphere of power. There are a dozen modern Schools of Witchcraft active in the world, though most of them are small affairs and part of the Illuminus League. Three schools stand on their own, each preferring one type of Pact patron over all others, one in Mystara primarily dedicated to Fae pacts, one in East Call favouring Celestial pacts and the last in Thran dedicated to Elemental pacts. The spellcasting side of the schooling is heavily flavoured by which type of pact they lean towards, but essentially the same. Students are given basic instruction on how to draw Arcanum into their minds, taught a few cantrips to practice with, and then led on a spiritual awakening where they seek out a patron to bargain with. This is often a dangerous process, as students who are not ready for such a journey can find themselves faced with challenges they cannot overcome, or temptations they cannot refuse. Often a student will be given the option of bargaining with an Infernal, who proffers generous terms and a seemingly easy road to power. Unfortunately, if a student accepts these Infernal pacts, the truth of it is often not found out until much, much later. Otherwise, the student will eventually find a patron who will bargain something of theirs for the powers of a Witch. Depending on the prospective patron, the demanded payment can either be something small and innocuous or overwhelmingly large. Often, if the student cannot or will not pay the price they must end the ritual and start again from the beginning, a process that takes at least a year. Once the Pact has been made and payment given the Patron imbues the Witch with a portion of its own essence, forming a direct link to the Arcanum that can filter the energy into a few specific learned forms. The first thing every new Witch learns how to do is call and bond a Familiar. This is usually a small, innocuous creature, but stronger Witches have been known to bond much more powerful beings. This Familiar is similar to those of other Arcanists, with one major difference, the Familiar is charged with the portion of the Patron’s essence the Witch was given, enlarging and empowering its soul to act as a kind of living spellbook that can hold all the magic a Witch learns. These Witch’s Familiars are more than the boon companions of other spellcasters, becoming a direct extension of the Witch’s own spellcasting prowess. After they have gained their Familiar, a Witch’s study continues until they are well versed in the uses of their Hexes, and the power of their spells. They are not taught magic in the normal way, the preferred method being a continued journey of discovery and enlightenment. This leaves most Witches without the usual studiousness of other Arcanists and a very low tolerance for the long, dull hours of study common to academia. All three major schools of Witchcraft run the same way. The school is led by a Headmaster who is an administrative figure. The faculty are Witches who have gained enough of a mastery of the craft to pass what they know on to others. Masters do not have tenure as they do in other schools, but come and go as the winds of fortune take them. Witchcraft as a whole is led by the Ordo Summus Coven, a group of the most powerful and puissant Witches in the world, several of whom are also members of the Magus Order. Schools of Witchcraft do not often engage in external politics, preferring to be left alone and extending the same courtesy to others. Category:World Powers